SunOpta Surges As Q1 Earnings Beat Street Estimates

(RTTNews) - Shares of food and beverages company SunOpta Inc. (STKL) are rising more than 24% Thursday morning after reporting better-than-expected first-quarter earnings.

The company's CEO said major expansion plans for the company are on track.

Commenting on quarterly results Joe Ennen, Chief Executive Officer said, "While margins were below our year-earlier levels, we made significant progress from the fourth quarter of 2021, and believe that we have remedied production challenges in our plants and have passed on over 90% of inflationary pressures with price increases. I'm pleased to report that we are on track with expansion projects, including our new plant in Texas."

Earnings for the first quarter was $3.47 million, or $0.03 per share, compared with a loss of $0.3 million, or breakeven per share last year.

Excluding one-time items, earnings were$0.6 million or $0.01 per share. The consensus estimate of analysts poled by Thomson Reuters was $0.02 loss per share.

Revenues were $240.17 million for the first quarter of 2022, up 15.7%, on strong demand across portfolio. Analysts expectation was for $285.9 million.

Looking forward, SunOpta has reaffirmed its full year revenue outlook in the range of $890 million - $930 million. The consensus estimate stands at $1.17 billion.

STKL, currently at $6.09, has been trading in the range of $4.22-$13.72 in the past 52 weeks.